How Cold is "Cold"? What about -54?

That's right. One town in Minnesota hit -54 degrees Fahrenheit this week. At that temperature, skin freezes when exposed for as little as 2 minutes, according to this site.

Temperatures plummeted across the eastern half of the nation Monday, approaching an all-time record in northern Minnesota and freezing the Gulf Coast as a river of Arctic air pushed southward. Thermometers registered a low of 54 degrees below zero at Embarrass, Minn. ``You keep living, but it gets old after a while,'' said Christine Mackai, the town clerk for the community of about 1,400 people in northeast Minnesota. Minnesota's record is 60 below, set on Feb. 2, 1996, in Tower, about 10 miles north of Embarrass.

What was all that about global warming?